Intercultural Communication

When thinking about intercultural communication the movie Eat Pray Love came to my mind. The movie Eat Pray Love comes from the book where a woman, Elizabeth Gilbert, wants to find and add purpose to her life. She wants to travel to three different destinations looking for different things/feelings along the way. The first is Italy to learn Italian and regain her love of food. The second is India at the ashram of David's yogi to achieve some spiritual peace in her life. And third is Indonesia to reconnect with the medicine man Ketut Liyer to see if he can provide any more insights into her life. Although she sticks to her geographic plan, she often experiences things along the way she didn't expect. During her travels she had to learn and find the different cultures and ways to communicate with the people there. In each destination there were people who spoke English that she could communicate with, but she had to learn different aspects of the three different cultures. This movie gives us different snips of the Italian, Indian, and Indonesian cultures, but this is just Liz Gilbert's view and outcome from those cultures. Each person can interpret and take different cultures different ways. In a way this video can give us one perception, and if we visited our selves we could get a whole different experience and outcome from it. I know that the first time that I saw this video it made me want to travel to those places because of the experience that she had. In reality, if I did travel to those places I would probably get a totally different experience. I am sure that this summer when we go on our trip none of us will have the same experience or opinion about the culture because we are all different. I am so excited to get to see and take in new experiences! Different movies that we watch can give us good and bad perceptions on different cultures. No matter what we need to have an open and excepting mind about everyone's views and differences in different cultures. Being respectful is most important! 

Skills on Skills

There are so many "skills" that an average person should be able to task before they are "grown up". As a future educator I believe that is is our duty to help our students learn as many of the 21st skills as possible. In the younger grades we are supposed to encourage the students to have and display their own creativity. We also are supposed to let them have a sense of imagination. Currently in the public schools, I don't see a lot of that going on. There are too many teachers worried about their students tests scores and what the whole class percentage is going to be. I think there should be more of an opportunity to let our students be MORE creative and have more problem solving situations. Those types of skills is what they are going to use for the rest of their life. In some students home situations there is not an opportunity for having an imagination or having fun. In the classroom there should be time in our daily schedule for the students to be able to have fun and let their imagination out. Every student is going to be different in the way they learn or let that out, but it's so hard to incorporate that when the teachers are just worries about scores. For me it is all about the children and passing on the knowledge that I am teaching them. I will try my best to incorporate as many "live related" skills through my teachings and lessons.

I think every student should have the opportunity to learn about other cultures and places other than their own. Now a days I think it is more of a norm than not to have teachers be more "culturally aware." I know that I plan to be open and interested about different cultures of students and incorporating that into my classroom. It is also important to be culturally aware when you are dealing with parents and with co-workers. 

Cultural Lens

The "typical" Arkansan vacation seems to be taking a trip to the beach or going skiing. I know many people that when ever they get a vacation that is all they ever do... go to the beach or go skiing. Growing up my parents loved to travel around the United States. I was fortunate to get to travel to different areas of the country and learn about our history and view different landmarks. It is sad to think that people wouldn't want to travel around the country let alone the world if they are given the opportunity. If I had the opportunity I would have traveled all over the world by now. Unfortunately, traveling around the world uses up a lot of time and requires a lot of money. I have been out of the country once before, but I am so excited to get the experience to travel more. If I had the choice I would love to be traveling to different counties and doing mission work with children. It's hard for me to picture people not wanting to expand their cultural knowledge to travel and learn about different places. I wish everyone had the money and opportunity to at least travel somewhere different just to see what it is like. I feel like I am going to be addicted to traveling and learning about new cultures and environments. The articles we had to read were very interesting! I think that too many Americans don't travel around because we do have a lot to offer here, but I also think that there is a lot to offer in other countries that we do not have. Yes, there are defiantly some places in the world that are not safe to travel to, but there are LOTS of places that are very safe! There are places in the US that aren't very safe that I would't want to visit. You just have to be aware of your surroundings and respect the culture why you are visiting. I have said this in another post, but I noticed that the first article mentioned it: "Treat others how you would want to be treated." I try and think about this statement for every situation I am in. Whether I am in a different country or I am in a different city, it does not matter. You should always treat other people and places how you want to be treated.

The closer and closer it gets to summer, the more excited I get about this trip!

Globalization

Globalization maybe a term that is coming up a lot in the news or socail media, but it has been going on for years. Globalization is not an "act" that is on the uprising, we may be just hearing about it more because we have the resources and technology to hear about it more. Globalization has to do with international integration from the interchanging of goods, business, products, ideas, aspects of cultures, and much more. The article and video that we were able to view were very interesting. I believe that everyone has their own opinion and views about different levels of gloalization. I believe that levels of gloabalization are great! Trading ideas, good, and cultures amoung countries should happen all around the world! Now a days it is very easy for everyone to see the forms of globalization happening. It is very apparent that McDonalds has chains all around the world. Also I know that Walmart actually has store around the world. Some stores did not end up working out because they did not do their research about the area where they were putting the store. I am eager to learn more about positive and negative aspects of globalization and to be able to see it when we visit different places this summer. 

I tried to upload this cool picture, but my computer is not letting me. I'm sure some of you have seen it, but if you would like to see it follow this link: 
 http://www.google.com/imgres?sa=X&rlz=1T4TSND_enUS412US412&tbm=isch&tbnid=hXJNya3gx3ajLM%3A&imgrefurl=http%3A%2F%2Fglobalisation.pen.io%2F&docid=Emd6OdmttmcGlM&imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Fimg.pen.io%2F4fef4325d7d870.75826395.undefined&w=362&h=279&ei=NKAKU_r0M8OcyQHZ2oCYBw&zoom=1&iact=rc&dur=2169&page=4&start=43&ndsp=16&ved=0CIkCEK0DMDg 

Being Cuturally Aware

When traveling other places that has different traditions or cultures than what you are accustomed to, you should always be respectful and culturally aware of others. I have always liked the saying: "Treat others how you want to be treated." This saying should especially apply when you are traveling. When people come visit the United States, you always want them to be respectful of our country! This is how we should act when we are visiting other countries this summer. There are a lot of different traditions that we are not accustomed to in Ireland and Scotland. Just because you may not like it or agree with it does not mean that you should be disrespectful towards it. For example, when I think of Ireland the first thing that comes to my mind is red headed people with an accent. I know that not everyone in Ireland is going to have red hair or even have an accent. Also, I have heard the food is a little different. I am very excited to try different foods while we are over there. I may not like all of them, but that doesn't mean that I am not going to try them. I think the biggest factor that everyone should focus on is being respectful to the other cultures that we will be seeing. I am excited to learn and experience the different cultures!! I found this picture that I wanted to share!

 

- Abby 

 



 

Introduction

Hey there! My name is Abby Clark and I am eager to start my traveling blog about my trip to Ireland this summer. Let me introduce myself a little bit.. I am a senior Early Childhood Education major at Henderson State University. I am currently doing my student teaching internship at Ringgold Elementary in the Benton School District. For the first eight weeks I am in a fourth grade math class and the second eight weeks I will be in Kindergarten. So far it has been an amazing experience! When I have free time, which is not too often, I enjoy spending time with my family and friends, doing outdoor activities, playing with my dog, and watching a good TV show. My family is a very important aspect of my life! My mother, Deni, and father, Mike,  have been wonderful role models and I look up to them in so many ways! I also have a younger brother, Preston, who just started his first semester of college at Henderson as well! I am proud to have introduced him to HSU and he is loving the college experience so far!

We have been asked to tell something that we are passionate about... Something that I am truly passionate about is helping people. In high school I started doing a summer program called Ozark Mission Project. OMP is a week long mission project where high school students are able to get together and do mission work various places around Arkansas. OMP showed me that helping people in need was something that I really wanted to do with my life. If it weren't for my love for children and teaching I would be having a career that had to do with mission work. I also have had the experience to go on several mission projects with my church! I am actually looking into going on a mission trip to Cuba next December with a group from my church! If I didn't have to worry about time and money, I would spend my time traveling around the world and experiencing how other people live and helping people along the way.

I am also very passionate about children!! Children have a certain hold on my heart, which is why I have been called to be a teacher. I started to go to school wanting to be a nurse. After my first semester, I knew that was  not my calling in life. I took an education class to see if that was what I wanted to do, and it was like there was no going back. I come from a long line of teachers in my family and wanted to try and do something different. Now I am honored to carry on the teaching chain!

The only other time I have been out of the United States was when I went on a cruise to Jamaica,  Grand Cayman, and Cozumel. That was an awesome experience, but this trip to Ireland is my dream trip! I can't wait to venture through Ireland and take in all the beauty and history. I have been doing some research and the pictures are breath taking! I know it will be even more beautiful in person! Something I am really looking forward to about this trip is that my best friend, Shelby, is coming as well! This trip is going to be one to remember forever! My expectations for this trip are very high and I just know that those expectations are going to be exceeded! There is so much that I hope to learn about Ireland and the people that are also going on the trip!

- Abby